A night passed.
Chu Yunfei exhaled a breath of turbid air and slowly opened his eyes.
The sixth level of the Body Tempering Realm!
The nourishment from the Dragon and Phoenix Dao Yellow Scripture, combined with a night of consolidation, had let him break through three levels in succession from the third level of Body Tempering.
Anyone else would have needed at least a year to cover that ground.
He had needed only one night.
Chu Yunfei clenched his fists, his knuckles softly cracking. The strength surging through his body was several times greater than yesterday.
Yet after circulating it through several cycles, he frowned.
The Azure Mystic Sect's yellow-grade cultivation technique was too slow.
With his dantian's current capacity, using this technique was like filling a water vat with a teacup. Cultivating at this rate was a sheer waste of time.
"Time to change techniques."
A long-sealed cultivation method surfaced in his mind.
The Boundless Creation Scripture!
This was a supreme cultivation technique he had brought out of an ancient forbidden land in his previous life, surviving nine deaths for one chance at life.
He had also brought out the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate.
Cultivated to its utmost, this technique could expand one's dantian capacity to ten thousand times that of a martial cultivator at the same level, while continuously tempering the body during cultivation.
The sole requirement was possession of the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate.
In his previous life, he had never managed to awaken the divine cauldron, leaving him to stand guard over a mountain of treasure only to return empty-handed.
In this life, the divine cauldron had awakened.
At last, this technique had a chance to prove its worth.
Chu Yunfei immediately guided his spiritual power along the technique's prescribed routes.
Boom!
Spiritual power surged into his meridians like a flood bursting through opened gates.
Its previously sluggish circulation instantly accelerated fivefold, and the Spiritual Qi in the courtyard was drawn in as well, rushing into his body in a frantic scramble.
Merely circulating the technique had increased his absorption speed tenfold!
"Now that's more like it."
Just as Chu Yunfei was about to continue cultivating, a knock suddenly came from outside the courtyard gate.
"Senior Brother Chu, are you there?"
He opened the gate. An outer sect disciple stood outside, his gaze evasive.
"A notice from the Deacon Hall: the annual outer sect assessment will take place in three days. All disciples who have not entered the Qi Condensation Realm must participate."
The youth held out a jade slip, his voice growing quieter.
"Those who fail will be stripped of their disciple status and expelled from the sect."
With that, he shoved the jade slip into Chu Yunfei's hand, turned, and left, as though afraid that staying a moment longer would bring bad luck upon him.
Chu Yunfei held the jade slip, his expression calm.
The annual assessment was an established rule.
But someone was clearly preparing to use this ready-made blade to drive him out of the Azure Mystic Sect for good.
"Three days?"
Chu Yunfei put away the jade slip.
"That's enough."
Meanwhile, at an inner sect residence.
Situ Shuang'er paced back and forth in fury.
"He's a cripple. What right does he have to negotiate with my mother? He wants compensation, too? Does he deserve it?"
The door swung open.
Lin Wanyin walked in on unsteady feet, her face pale and her clothes somewhat disheveled.
"Mother?"
Situ Shuang'er hurried over.
"What's wrong? Did Chu Yunfei attack you?"
"That can't be. With his current cultivation, how could he possibly be a match for you?"
Lin Wanyin shuddered.
"Don't mention that beast!"
Her reaction was so intense that Situ Shuang'er froze.
"Mother, what's wrong?"
Lin Wanyin's lips moved, but she could not get a word out.
Was she supposed to tell her daughter that that shameless scoundrel had...
No, she absolutely couldn't tell her!
If word got out, how could she ever show her face again?
"It's nothing, I just... I was just angered by that cripple's shameless words."
Lin Wanyin forcibly suppressed her churning emotions and took out the marriage contract.
"I got the marriage contract back."
"Don't go looking for trouble with him again. Do you hear me?"
Situ Shuang'er took the marriage contract, delight showing on her face.
"Wonderful! The engagement is finally dissolved."
"Let's see who still dares gossip behind my back about my engagement to a mere cripple!"
Lin Wanyin did not respond. She merely said she was tired and hurried back to her room.
Situ Shuang'er watched her retreating figure, her brows knitting tighter and tighter.
She did not know whether she was imagining things.
She kept feeling that there was something unusual about the way her mother walked.
Moreover, there was a strange smell on her that she could not quite describe.
I'll have to find a chance to ask Mother.
Situ Shuang'er withdrew her gaze, thinking this to herself.
The Azure Mystic Sect, Scripture Pavilion.
The moment Chu Yunfei stepped into the pavilion, hushed murmurs rose around him.
"Isn't that the former inner sect genius?"
"I heard he's fallen all the way to the third level of Body Tempering. He's still here to borrow martial techniques?"
"Keep your voices down. Don't provoke him into going mad."
Chu Yunfei turned a deaf ear and headed straight for the borrowing desk.
Behind the counter, Zhang Xuan lifted his eyelids and gave a mocking smile.
"Well, if it isn't our great genius Chu!"
"Why aren't you hiding in that rundown courtyard? Come to disgrace yourself at the Scripture Pavilion instead?"
This man had once been one of Chu Yunfei's followers.
In the past, it had been "Brother Fei" this and "Brother Fei" that. Now that Chu Yunfei had fallen on hard times, he had become the one stomping on him the hardest.
People turned their hearts faster than they turned pages.
"I want to borrow a martial technique."
Chu Yunfei slapped his identity token onto the counter.
Zhang Xuan scoffed.
"Do you even have any contribution points left?"
"Look for yourself."
Zhang Xuan picked up the token and scanned it. His smile instantly froze.
"A hundred contribution points?"
That was as much as he could save from a month of sect missions.
"Have you looked enough?" Chu Yunfei asked.
Zhang Xuan snorted and tossed the token back.
"A hundred points will only get you one low-tier yellow-grade martial technique. Pick one yourself."
Chu Yunfei scanned the shelves, his gaze settling on a corner.
Triple Wave Slash, a low-tier yellow-grade sword technique.
This sword technique emphasized layering strength upon strength and consisted of three stages. Once the third stage was mastered, its power rivaled a mid-tier yellow-grade martial technique.
In his previous life, he would have found a sword technique like this too rough even to use as toilet paper.
Unfortunately, his starting point in his previous life had been too high. Low-level martial techniques had never caught his eye, while those he had considered barely worth looking at required a certain cultivation level to practice.
"This one."
Zhang Xuan curled his lip.
This sword technique was easy to begin learning, but no one in the outer sect had truly mastered its third stage in decades.
A piece of trash dared to choose it?
"One hundred contribution points deducted."
Zhang Xuan casually tossed the manual out.
Chu Yunfei caught it, turned, and left.
Watching his retreating figure, Zhang Xuan's expression gradually darkened.
"A piece of trash dares put on airs with me?"
Behind the mountain, at a towering cliff.
Fierce winds howled, making Chu Yunfei's robes snap and flutter.
He drew the iron sword with its rolled edge and swung it along the paths prescribed by Triple Wave Slash.
"First stage!"
The blade slashed past. A burst of sword force struck the rock face, leaving only a faint white mark.
Chu Yunfei did not stop.
One stroke.
Ten strokes.
A hundred strokes.
The Boundless Creation Scripture continuously absorbed Spiritual Qi to replenish his expenditure. With his martial insight from his previous life, understanding a yellow-grade sword technique posed no barrier whatsoever.
All he lacked was getting his current body accustomed to the way it exerted force.
At last, the sun slanted westward.
Chu Yunfei swung his sword again.
"Third stage!"
Hum!
Three bursts of sword force erupted in succession, layering into a single line in midair before slamming into the cliff face.
Boom!
Shattered stone flew.
A sword mark half a foot deep appeared on the rock face.
He had mastered Triple Wave Slash!
Just then, a tremor suddenly came from beneath his feet.
Those three layers of force had happened to strike an inconspicuous old sword mark on the rock face.
Crack, crack, crack...
A massive boulder slowly shifted aside, revealing a dark cave entrance.
"A hidden cave abode?"
Chu Yunfei tightened his grip on the iron sword and stepped inside.
After he walked a dozen meters or so, the passage gradually opened up.
A skeleton sat cross-legged in the center of the cave abode, both hands tightly gripping a black longsword thrust into the ground.
The blade was ancient and plain, its Spiritual Qi contained within.
"A mid-tier yellow-grade spirit sword."
Chu Yunfei's eyes lit up.
A spirit sword was a weapon infused with Spiritual Qi, far beyond anything ordinary iron could compare to.
A mid-tier yellow-grade spirit sword was worth several thousand spirit stones, enough to make countless outer sect disciples fight until their heads split.
He had never expected to find one here.
Chu Yunfei approached the skeleton and solemnly bowed.
"Senior, allow this junior to borrow your sword."
"One day, I will certainly find you a place of burial."
He gripped the hilt and pulled hard.
Clang!
A clear, ringing sword cry resounded through the cave abode.
The instant the longsword left the ground, a jade bottle rolled out from within the skeleton's robes.
Chu Yunfei picked up the jade bottle and pulled out the stopper.
A rich medicinal fragrance wafted into his face.
A pill the size of a longan lay quietly inside, spiritual light flowing across its surface.
"A Second-Grade Qi Condensation Pill!"
This pill was specifically intended to help Body Tempering Realm martial artists break through, and its value even surpassed that of the yellow-grade spirit sword in his hand.
With it, the assessment in three days would no longer pose any pressure.
He was now also completely confident he could return to the Qi Condensation Realm within a month.
Chu Yunfei gripped the black sword and jade bottle and chuckled softly.
"Those who humiliated me..."
"Just you wait!"