"Sect Leader, th-that's the Liyang Sword Technique," Zhao Dongli's eldest disciple, Yao Tianhe, said in utter shock.
"It is the Liyang Sword Technique, but it's more than that." Zhao Dongli's eyes were filled with unparalleled astonishment.
"Do you see the blade in Ling Yi's hand? Every time he attacks, a layer of red light coats it. That's exactly what happens when someone makes progress in the Liyang Heart Sutra and channels its power into a blade or sword. Though he's only at the beginner stage, I could never mistake it."
"Sect Leader, h-how is this possible? How could anyone in the world have such terrifying talent?" Yao Tianhe was dumbfounded. He, too, cultivated the Liyang Heart Sutra and practiced the Liyang Sword Technique.
But the talent required for both was simply too great. With techniques of this kind, hard work alone wasn't enough.
In truth, neither the Liyang Heart Sutra, the Liyang Sword Technique, nor the Liyang Fist Technique was incomplete.
It was simply that the Liyang techniques required extraordinary talent and heaven-defying aptitude to cultivate.
So, at some point, a sect leader had made up an excuse, telling his descendants and disciples that the Liyang Heart Sutra was difficult to cultivate because it was incomplete, a fragment.
At the same time, however, every disciple was required to practice the Liyang techniques for three years, especially the Liyang Heart Sutra. If they made no progress after three years, they could then focus on other martial arts.
After being passed down for generations, the secret had long since been forgotten. Even Zhao Dongli didn't know it.
The eldest disciple, Yao Tianhe, had cultivated the Liyang Heart Sutra for ten years and was one of the only people in the entire Liyang Sect, aside from the sect leader, to have mastered it.
But his progress had been unacceptably slow.
If Zhao Dongli and his disciple Yao Tianhe had switched to any middling technique, their strength would have shot up like a rocket, and they might well have made names for themselves in the Jianghu long ago.
The Liyang Heart Sutra was ridiculously powerful, and its contents were so profound that it no longer seemed like a mortal martial art.
The "yang" in the Liyang Heart Sutra didn't refer to an internal power attribute, but to the Yang Soul. The Yang Soul was the soul, simply the soul a person had while alive.
After death, the Yang Soul became a yin soul. Both were souls, but the soul's yin and yang attributes reversed between life and death.
Liyang, Liyang: its ultimate goal was for the Yang Soul to become a god, undying and indestructible.
A technique that could cultivate the soul and draw out its power-how could that not be frightening?
Before the Liyang Heart Sutra, the martial arts in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer weren't even trash.
It had to be said that Ling Yi was truly lucky, having transmigrated straight into the Liyang Sect.
But the power of the Yang Soul couldn't be used directly, at least not before the Yang Soul became a god.
So the genius Big Shot who created the technique had found another path, using soul power to expand the meridians and dantian, then converting soul power into internal power.
The first half of the Liyang Heart Sutra cultivated the Yang Soul, while the second allowed free conversion between Soul Power and internal power.
During that conversion, the Big Shot also discovered that internal power converted from Soul Power gave one a clearer perception of the energy between heaven and earth.
Internal power could be used to draw upon the yin, yang, and five elemental forces between heaven and earth, ultimately giving rise to the Liyang Sword Technique and the Liyang Fist Technique.
In fact, the red light flowing over the watermelon knife wasn't entirely internal power. It was the result of using internal power as a guide to absorb the power of fire from the five elements between heaven and earth.
How could this be called a martial art? It could pass for a cultivation technique.
But Ling Yi had no other thoughts in his head at the moment. He simply executed the Liyang Sword Technique on instinct, and the more he used it, the better he felt. Before he knew it, he had entered a state of forgetting both himself and the world.
Four hours later, the sect leader and disciples of the Liyang Sect squatted on the steps, eating noodle soup as they watched Ling Yi dart and weave through the courtyard as though he were a god.
At that moment, multicolored light enveloped Ling Yi, and streaks of sword light gushed from his watermelon knife. The air they tore through rumbled again and again.
The ground beneath Ling Yi's feet had long since been reduced to ruin, sunk nearly half a meter deep.
Zhao Dongli and the others had gone from shock, to gradually growing accustomed, to numbness in just four hours.
They could sit on the steps and eat their noodle soup at ease now, not because they were so unflappable, but because they had no idea how to be any more shocked.
"He's... unrivaled under heaven now, isn't he?" Zhao Dongli said, the corner of his mouth twitching as he finished the last mouthful of noodle soup.
"Sect Leader, is the Liyang Heart Sutra really that formidable?" Yao Tianhe asked.
"It's not the Liyang Heart Sutra that's formidable. It's Big Shot Ling Yi."
"Right, right, right, it's Big Shot Ling Yi who's formidable. If only Big Shot Ling Yi could stay in our Liyang Sect."
Zhao Dongli shook his head with a bitter smile. "If he'd stay in the Liyang Sect, I'd even give him the position of sect leader. I'm just afraid he looks down on our Liyang Sect."
No sooner had Zhao Dongli finished speaking than a voice rang out. "Who says I look down on the Liyang Sect? Do you mean what you said? If you do, I'll take the job."
As it turned out, Ling Yi had finished cultivating and was walking over, looking refreshed.
His appearance had changed drastically. His skin looked healthier, and his whole person seemed as ethereal as an immortal, no longer of the mortal world.
"I mean it, I mean it! Brother Ling Yi-no, Sect Leader Ling Yi-as long as you're willing, you're the leader of our Liyang Sect from this very moment," Zhao Dongli said, nearly jumping to his feet.
It wasn't that Zhao Dongli was too foolish. Being sect leader had simply been too hard on him.
His strength was lacking, and he was dirt poor. He had tried everything to preserve the last shred of the Liyang Sect's dignity, but in the eyes of those around them, the Liyang Sect was a joke. As sect leader, he was worse off than the outer disciples of other sects.
To make money, he had worked as a messenger and an escort, and had even performed on the streets.
It had been too hard, too exhausting.
Now that a Big Shot like this was taking over the Liyang Sect, he could hardly resist clapping his feet together.
Most importantly, Ling Yi cultivated the Liyang Sect's techniques, so there was nothing wrong with him becoming sect leader.
Ling Yi had once been a gang boss. How could he not have underlings? Without underlings to wait on him, he felt uncomfortable all over.
The Liyang Sect was poor now, and these people were a little weak, but that didn't matter. He had a cheat.
"Get me a bowl of noodle soup." Ling Yi was a little hungry by now.
A disciple immediately ran into the main hall and brought Ling Yi a bowl of noodle soup.
"No dishes? Just noodle soup?" Ling Yi looked at the thin, watery soup, somewhat speechless.
"Well, Sect Leader, we're out of money," Zhao Dongli said miserably.
"You've really fallen on hard times, haven't you?" Ling Yi looked at the noodle soup in the bowl. Could this stuff even fill anyone up?
He casually shoved the bowl into someone's hands and asked Zhao Dongli, "Does our Liyang Sect have any hostile sects or factions?"
Zhao Dongli was embarrassed again and didn't know what to say.
"All right, I get it. Then tell me which sects have bullied you."
Zhao Dongli counted them off on his fingers. "The Mount Song Sect, Shaolin, the Beggar Sect, the Mount Heng Sect..."
"How did the Mount Song Sect, Shaolin, and the Mount Heng Sect come to bully you?"
"Sect Leader, there's something you don't know. Any powerful sect will establish branches in different places. These branches select outstanding disciples for the main sect, ensuring it receives enough talented disciples each year to sustain its development."
Oh, now Ling Yi understood. They were subsidiaries or local company offices.
"So nearly every sect has bullied you?"
Seeing Zhao Dongli nod helplessly, Ling Yi chuckled.
"Looks like I'll have to go back to my old trade. Which sect is closest to us?"
Zhao Dongli swallowed. "The M-Mount Song Sect. Sect Leader..."
"Then everyone, get ready. We're leaving."
"Sect Leader, where are we going?" Zhao Dongli had a bad feeling.
"Where else? The Mount Song Sect. Cut the nonsense and hurry up!" Ling Yi slung the watermelon knife over his shoulder and shouted.
The others froze for a moment before it sank in, then each went to fetch a weapon.
Ling Yi led the Liyang Sect's dozen-odd motley cats down the mountain in a noisy crowd.
"Sect Leader, are we really going to the Mount Song Branch?"
"What's wrong? If we don't go, where are you going to get money? Without money, how are you going to develop the sect? And if the sect doesn't develop, won't I lose face as its leader?"
"But the Mount Song Sect leads the Five Mountains, and its leader, Zuo Lengchan, is at Peak Acquired. The Freezing Ice Palm Technique he cultivates is even more strange and unpredictable."
"Tch, he's only at Peak Acquired. He's not even Innate. If he dares show up, I'll cut him down too."
"Could it be that you're already an Innate expert, Sect Leader?" Zhao Dongli asked hopefully.
"Obviously. What else? Do you think I'm going there to get myself killed? Or do you take me for a fool?"
He wasn't a fool, but he did seem a little reckless. Zhao Dongli couldn't shake the feeling that this new sect leader was going to lead the Liyang Sect astray.
"Wow, so Sect Leader is already an Innate expert? Doesn't that mean our Liyang Sect is unbeatable?"
"Yeah, boo-hoo, we'll never have to be bullied again. Being bullied by the Mount Song Sect was one thing, but even those beggars bullied us. It was infuriating."
"Quit your crying! Heads up and chests out, all of you! From now on, the Liyang Sect will be the only one doing the bullying. Anyone who fucking bullies my Liyang Sect, cut them down!"
"Cut them down!" everyone shouted.
"Anyone who bullies my Liyang Sect..."
"Cut them down, cut them down, cut them down!"
Zhao Dongli wanted to cry but had no tears. This...
Host: Ling Yi Life: 650 Internal power (Spiritual Power): 120 Cultivation: Peak Innate Techniques: "Liyang Heart Sutra" (Minor Accomplishment 10%), "Liyang Sword Technique" (Great Accomplishment 60%), "Liyang Palm Technique" (Great Accomplishment 25%).
The Liyang Heart Sutra had given Ling Yi a tremendous surprise.
But what had truly surprised Ling Yi was the system's passive aura. This was only a level-one Passive Cultivation Aura. What about level two or three? Wouldn't any technique take off in an instant?
Ling Yi also understood that the system was one reason he had reached Innate in such a short time, but the role of the Liyang Heart Sutra couldn't be underestimated either.
The two great difficulties in cultivating the Liyang Heart Sutra were getting started and cultivating the Yang Soul. But because Ling Yi had the Passive Cultivation Aura, the hardest step had instead been the easiest to cross.
The Liyang Heart Sutra was itself a cultivation technique that had gone off course in a martial arts world. To be precise, it was no worse than a true cultivation technique.
Once mastered, one was bound to soar.
Cultivators and martial practitioners were on entirely different levels.
That was also why "Spiritual Power" had been specially added in parentheses after internal power in his attributes.