Library of Heaven’s Path

Hualala!

The crisp melody of tea flowing into a cup filled a tranquil room.

Hall Master Xing placed the teapot in his hands down before passing the fresh cup of tea over.

Elder Qi took a sip of it, and his eyes immediately lit up. “Excellent tea! It’s no wonder it’s worth such a huge sum. Its quality is definitely worth the fortune spent on it!”

Hall Master Xing had specially bought these Cloudmist Flower tea leaves from the Hongyuan Empire. Back then, he had thought that it was a little pricey, and he had only intended to give it a try. However, upon tasting it, he realized that it was really worth its price.

“It sure is fine tea, isn’t it?” Hall Master Xing nodded in agreement as he sipped on his.

Over the past three days of hard work, he had managed to further reinforce his cultivation, bringing his state of mind and Primordial Spirit to a whole new level.

At this rate, he would be ready by the time the lightning ordeal fell.

Looking at the elder before him, Hall Master Xing asked, “Elder Qi, how has your cultivation been going recently?”

“The Combat Master Hall’s Spirit Gathering Formation is indeed formidable. After cultivating for just half a day, I managed to reinforce my Half-Leaving Aperture realm cultivation,” Elder Qi said with a stroke of his beard.

He had to admit that the training facilities within the Combat Master Hall were truly impressive. If it had been anywhere else, it would have taken at least several months before he reinforced his Half-Leaving Aperture realm cultivation. But here, he managed to do it within just three days!

Admittedly, it would still be quite some time before he was ready to push for a breakthrough to the Leaving Aperture realm, but with his body having adapted to his current level of cultivation, he would be able to draw forth incredible might at a wave of his hand.

“It’s only because Elder Qi has a strong foundation. Not just anyone is able to utilize the formation to its full potential as you did,” Hall Master Xing remarked.

Ultimately, the formation only played an auxiliary role in one’s cultivation. What was more important was the cultivator himself.

Elder Qi had braved through many threatening situations, and this had elevated his state of mind to an incredible level. In fact, Hall Master Xing suspected that the other party might even be able to clear the Trial of Inner Demons easily.

Choosing not to linger too much on the topic, Elder Qi asked, “How has Sun shi been doing recently?”

He had been wanting to formally pay a visit to his benefactor to thank him, but in the past three days, he had found that the latter had been working even more diligently than him. In fact, there was hardly anyone who had caught a glimpse of him in the Combat Master Hall.

“You know, I really have to admit that Sun shi is a true genius!” Hearing that question, Hall Master Xing recalled the various reports he had heard over the past two days, and his eyes lit up in agitation.

“Genius?”

“Un. The first place Sun shi visited was the Fist Division. I presume that you should have heard of the Strength Assessing Fist Pillar there, right?” Hall Master Xing asked.

Elder Qi nodded.

The existence of the Strength Assessing Fist Pillar was no secret in the Qingyuan Empire. In fact, there were quite a few people who would visit the Fist Division in hopes of borrowing it to assess their current strength.

It was a Saint-tier artifact, and it could accurately gauge one’s punching strength.

“The record for the Strength Assessing Fist Pillar for Saint 2-dan was left behind by Combat Master Wang Ce eight thousand years ago. Combat Master Wang Ce was born with incredible strength, and he went on to cultivate the Art of Drawing Oceans and the strongest defensive secret art of our Combat Master Hall, thus strengthening his zhenqi and physical body to an unbelievable level.

“Not only that, he is also an avid fist practitioner. Over the years, he refined his fist art to an unprecedented level. Yet, he only achieved a score of 18 in the trial. On the other hand, with just two hours of cultivation, Sun shi broke the record and attained a score of 88!”

Even as he spoke of those words, Hall Master Xing’s eyes could not help but widen in disbelief as he imaged the situation in his head.

It was not without reason that achieving a record was considered a great honor. It could only be achieved by pushing one’s body to the very limits, achieving a level that could be considered very close to the limit of a human. As such, breaking a record was never an easy feat. Those who did succeed in breaking a record would also only achieve a score slightly higher than the previous record.

Yet, that fellow actually managed to clear the record with a score several times the previous score.

This was truly unbelievable!

“You said that he attained a score of 88?” Elder Qi’s lips twitched.

“Indeed. I was astonished by the score, too, so I went to look for him to ask him about the matter. But he said…” At this point, Hall Master Xing suddenly shook his head, and a look of utter defeat surfaced on his face.

“What did he say?”

“He said that… he attained a score of 88 because he felt that it was an auspicious number 1 . His pockets have been running dry recently, and he hoped that this auspicious omen could change his luck a little,” Hall Master Xing replied hoarsely.

“…” Elder Qi.

“And after he was done with the Fist Division, he went on ahead to the Palm Division.”

Hall Master Xing suddenly fell silent at this point. It took a long while before he was able to carry on.

“As you might know, the Combat Master Hall’s palm techniques can be divided into eighteen types, such as soft and gentle or hard and forceful. In order to assess one’s comprehension of a certain palm type, the Palm Division has a trial guarded by eighteen puppets. Usually, clearing even the first puppet is a difficult feat for most combat masters, and yet… after he entered, he immediately triggered all of the puppets into action, and with a palm each, he defeated all eighteen of the puppets. All in all, it didn’t even take him ten breaths!”

“He defeated all of the puppets with a palm each?” Elder Qi widened his eyes in shock.

“Indeed! More importantly, the palm type he used corresponded perfectly to each of the puppets. In other words, his palm art changed eighteen times within just a short ten breaths!” Hall Master Xing continued.

“How is that possible?” Elder Qi could not help but shudder upon hearing those words.

As the wrist was one of the most flexible parts of a human body, palm arts tended to be one of the more complicated and profound battle techniques. Using a gentle palm art and a forceful palm art drew on vastly different strengths, and an abrupt switch between the two could easily lead to severe injuries. Yet, to change to eighteen different types within just ten breaths… Was this really a feat that could be pulled off by a human?

Was the other party’s body forged of metal, making him impervious to the backlash from the abrupt switches?

If it had been Elder Qi himself doing it, he had no doubt that his meridians would have ruptured.

“The true shocker has yet to come. You should know of our Guardian Division, right?” Hall Master Xing asked.

“Of course I do,” Elder Qi replied with a nod. “The Guardian Division is known for its Divine Hammer, which is capable of analyzing the flaws of a cultivator’s body and tempering them through hammering, thus enhancing one’s defenses. Once all 1,296 acupoints have been tempered, even blades will struggle to slice through one’s skin. Through it, the Guardian Division has developed generations of formidable combat masters!”

If the Weapon Division was the strongest spear in the Combat Master Hall, the Guardian Division was definitely the sturdiest shield of it.

Those who could master its heritage would be nigh indestructible on the battlefield. Putting aside arrows, even Saint-tier weapons would hardly leave a mark on them. Just like the resilient cockroaches, they were a fearsome force regardless of where they went.

“Indeed. The Divine Hammer is a Saint intermediate-tier artifact, and it has exceptional capabilities in tempering the human body. However, its strikes produce excruciating pain that permeate deep into the bones, causing normal combat masters to be unable to even withstand a minute of its tempering. Even I am unable to last more than five minutes. But when Sun shi entered the Guardian Hall to allow his body to be tempered by the Divine Hammer…”

Hall Master Xing clutched his forehead and exclaimed incredulously, “… he actually fell asleep!”

“He fell asleep?” Elder Qi nearly spurted blood.

“He said that it was simply too comfortable, so he ended up dozing off. Honestly, if not for the fact that we were worried for his health and dragged him out, he might have just slept for several days straight in there!” Hall Master Xing said helplessly.

When he saw saliva flowing from the corners of Sun shi’s face, he had nearly fainted from horror.

Such excruciating hammering, and the other party could actually think of it as a mere massage and relax from it… It was truly inconceivable.

“After he woke up, he headed to the Footwork Division. In the Trial of Footwork, there are total of 122 hidden mechanisms. As soon as one steps into the trial, one will trigger the mechanisms, resulting in a relentless wave of attacks. The further one proceeds into the trial, the more complicated the attacks become, and the harder it is to dodge them,” Hall Master Xing explained.

Elder Qi nodded in response.

The trials of the Combat Master Hall’s Ten Divisions were deeply feared in the Qingyuan Empire, and this was especially so for the Trial of Footwork.

It assessed one’s reflexes, speed, judgement, and many other aspects. If one was lacking in any of those, one would be struck before one knew it.

“Before entering the Trial of Footwork, I earnestly warned Sun shi about the difficulty of the trial for fear that he would be injured by it. Yet, who could have known that… he walked in and out of the entire trial, but he didn’t even trigger a single one of the hidden mechanisms! Thus, I forcefully activated all of the hidden mechanisms as soon as he entered the second time around, filling the entire trial with weapons and threats. Yet again, he walked in and out, but he still didn’t encounter a single thing.”

Hall Master Xing looked at the sky with a look of despair and sighed. “It was then that I realized that he was simply too fast. Such that even before the hidden mechanisms could do a single thing, he had already passed by all of them.”

“Even the hidden mechanisms didn’t have time to react?” Elder Qi’s body trembled in disbelief.

The hidden mechanisms were controlled by a formation within the trial, and they would be triggered as soon as one entered the vicinity of the trap. Yet, to move so fast that even the mechanisms did not have time to process his existence… Just how fast did he move?

At such speed, the other party was capable of killing him before he could even perceive the other party’s existence!

“Indeed!”

The more Hall Master Xing spoke, the deeper the bitterness on his face became.

To be able to become the head of a regional Combat Master Hall, it went without saying that he was an incredible genius in his time too. With his talent, he thought that he could easily reach levels beyond his peers as long as he were to put in hard work.

But upon seeing Sun shi, he suddenly realized that his talent was really nothing at all…

Before the other party, he was like dirt before the brilliant sun.

Just by strolling around in each division for less than four hours each, he was able to accomplish achievements that were unmatched by any predecessors and probably by many future generations to come as well.

‘Genius’ was no longer sufficient to describe him. In fact, even ‘monstrous’ seemed to be a little inadequate.

On the other hand, after hearing Hall Master Xing’s story, Elder Qi’s mouth was wide open.

He had thought that even if Sun shi was able to make some advancement in his fighting prowess over the past three days, it would surely have been minimal. No one could have imagined that he would be able to cook up such a huge commotion!

It took a long time before Elder Qi was able to calm down his agitated mind, and taking a deep breath, he said, “It seems like you have really chosen the right person this time around. Sun shi shouldn’t have any problem dealing with the huge trouble you spoke of.”

After the past few days of interaction with Hall Master Xing, he had learned what the ‘huge trouble’ was. For a student faction of a Tier-1 Empire’s Master Teacher Academy to be able to force their Combat Master Hall to such a desperate state, it had to be said that the rumored Principal Zhang did live up to his reputation.

Even though he had never met Principal Zhang in person, just by looking at the strength of the Xuanxuan Faction, he knew that it would be unwise to underestimate the other party’s strength.

“Indeed. I was still worried if Sun shi would be able to match Principal Zhang, but honestly, after seeing what Sun shi has accomplished so far, I am really unable to fathom an opponent who would be able to match him.” After venting out the shock he had accumulated over the past few days, Hall Master Xing finally felt as if a huge burden had been lifted from his heart, and a smile returned to his lips.

Having seen the Xuanxuan Faction’s strength with his own eyes, it was inevitable that he was apprehensive about going against an opponent like Principal Zhang. However, after witnessing the peerless strength that Sun shi had displayed, all worries had vanished from his mind.

If a 6-star master teacher like Principal Zhang could defeat even a monster of Sun shi’s caliber, the Combat Master Hall might as well be replaced with the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy.

“That’s good. I am also interested to see Sun shi using his strength to surpass the undefeatable legend of the Hongyuan Empire!” Elder Qi nodded with a smile.

Taking a glance at the sky outside, Hall Master Xing said as he stood up, “Looking at the time, the members of the Xuanxuan Faction should be arriving very soon. Let me invite Sun shi over.”

Today was the day that the Combat Master Hall would be holding an exchange with the Xuanxuan Faction, and the latter should have been on their way over at that moment.

The Xuanxuan Faction was a huge headache, but Hall Master Xing did not think that they would lose in the exchange. After all, there was far more to a battle than just combat skills.

“Let me head there with you,” Elder Qi said as he stood up as well, and they began making their way out.

Shortly after they left the room, Division Head Liao walked up to them.

Noting that Division Head Liao was alone, Hall Master Xing asked with a frown, “Where is Sun shi?”

“He said that it was still early, so… he went to the Soul Division first!” Division Head Liao replied.

“Soul Division?” Hall Master Xing froze for a brief moment before his face turned ghastly pale. “The Trial of Soul in the Soul Division is managed by the Saint 4-dan Chrysoprase Soul Beast. Our Combat Master Hall had to pay a heavy price to invite it over… This is bad!”

“Chrysoprase Soul Beast?” Elder Qi pondered for a moment. “That saint beast is indeed born with a powerful soul, allowing them to easily knock out anyone. Are you afraid that Sun shi will be knocked out ahead of the exchange?”

“That’s not it. I’m afraid that he will tame the Chrysoprase Soul Beast!” Hall Master Xing exclaimed anxiously.

“…” Elder Qi.